Rethink The Takeout Experience

THE CHALLENGE:

Restaurant takeout has been an afterthought for years. Starting the second you place an order with the hostess / manager / order taker juggling multiple responsibilities in a chaotic environment, the “Experience” associated with a restaurant begins. Once you finally connect with someone that tries to understand the intricacies of you order (add mayo, hold the pickles, extra crispy fries, etc.) the joy of navigating through a packed restaurant to find the postage stamp size space carved out of the corner of the bar that is serving as a makeshift pick up location leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth.

This was too often the typical experience pre COVID and too often is still the case today, minus the packed restaurant only to be replaced by a masked man handing you your order through a crack in the front door. For the foreseeable future the in-dining experience is going to be changed with less frequent visitors and a heavier volume of pickup orders, restaurant owners must adapt quickly.

THE SOLUTION:

ISM’s self-supported kiosks and backend alerting platform serves as the ideal solution for restaurants looking for a solution to this challenge.

A kiosk serving as a digital billboard in front of a restaurant quickly changes to a check in station when it sees a customer approaching. The customer shows the screen (with integrated camera) a QR code that quickly pulls up their order and alerts the kitchen staff that a customer has arrived.

By utilizing ISM’s proprietary CMS the kitchen staff also gets a real time snapshot image of the customer standing out front so they are able to greet them with a warm “Welcome Back Mrs. Smith”.

THE RESULTS:

By utilizing a well thought out mobile ordering system or dedicating thoughtful staff manning the phones and integrating the ISM check in system a restaurant can show their customers that their takeout business is important to them and they have invested in making it as high quality as possible.

NOTE – This concept applies to every business that has to check in a customer not just restaurants. (retail, grocery, doctors offices, etc.)